There are two streams of thought which are very evident all the way through the Bible:

1. God is sovereign. He created all, sustains all and rules over all. This is both assumed and explicitly stated at all times in Scripture. It also seems to be self evident - if God is God then he is supreme in everything ... or he isn't God, something else is.

There is quite some debate about Calvin and Calvinism going on in some Christian circles. Some of this debate has been taking place on the public forum of Facebook. It is distressing to me that a fair bit of the discussion has been quite intemperate with some putting others down in unpleasant ways.

Well, what are we to do? As individuals. As families. As a nation. As local communities.

Asylum seekers. Some come by boat, some come by plane. With Australia being an island continent, they are the only options.

It's the boat people that get the attention. They are on the front pages regularly, and have been so on and off for years. At present it is a growing problem. During the Howard years the numbers of boat people arriving dwindled, but there were voices being raised that our treatment of them was inhumane.

The catchcry of same-sex marriage proponents is "equality": gay couples have a right to equal treatment and to deny them legal marriage is blatant discrimination.

Yet this claim deflects attention from the real issue: what is the true nature of marriage?

Two rival visions jostle for supremacy. The conjugal model says marriage is a lifelong union between a man and a woman. The partnership model says marriage is a contract between committed loving couples.

In response to a post on Facebook with this picture featuring these words,

True Christians rebuke sin and expose it.
False Christians practice sin and defend it.
A friend of the world is the enemy of God
James 4:4

I commented:

Not sure that's a valid dichotomy, Jason. There's more to this than meets the eye. The Bible also says that love covers over a multitude of sins. Jesus himself said that people would know us by our love, not how well we rebuke sin.